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Category Archives: Childhood

Back in the 1980s, The Disney Channel used to air a lot of their classic animated shorts. Among them included a series featuring Goofy as George Geef, an “everyman” with a wife and son (who later served as the basis for Goof Troop’s Max.) They basically lampooned the everyday struggles of an adult in the 1950s, from taking a road trip to managing the household chores. Being a child myself when I initially watched them, I found these as funny as any of the other shorts, even if a few jokes went over my head. Of course many of these gags are products of their time (such as the gender-based ones featured in Father’s Day Off), but if I learned anything re-watching these shorts as an adult, it’s this:

If your grandparents were Hockey fans, chances are they have seen some fights in their day.

Slow Drivers annoyed them too

Your parents’ teachers were just as underpaid and overworked as yours …

… As well as having their own share of helicopter parents

Everybody thought of leaving early to beat the traffic

And off-road motels were always sketchy AF

As much as the cartoon frequently reminds you of the decade it was made (with the radio programs, milk man and washing machine with hand wringer), it also comically reflects on broader American experience, making Grandma and Grandpa’s time not feel so foreign.

On the other hand …

It was a different time…

… A VERY different time.

It would be fun watching this character try to explain his school days to his post-Columbine grandchildren.

I remember a kid from college who kept saying he used to draw cartoons but stopped because he “couldn’t draw hands.” In an effort to dispel that thinking, I told him what an art teacher told me: Gary Larson, creator of the beloved “far Side” strip couldn’t draw hands either. He was right. Mr. Larson’s hands were very palm-tree like, but it didn’t stop him from bringing his humor to life, and it paid off.

Edward Linley Sambourne, victorian era cartoonist for PunchMagazine had a greater challenge: he couldn’t draw human figures in specific poses. He elevated this by obtaining friends, family (and prostitutes) to pose in his studio. From this strategy, he created some of the magazine’s best cartoons.

An artist always finds a way around a perceived flaw.

My ability to draw hands has since improved (though I do have my “palm tree” moments), but I don’t think I would have gotten that far without the information from my teacher. God, I wish I remembered his name.

Unfortunately, my co-ed couldn’t see that. I remember when I completed my advice, he gave me the coldest glare I had ever seen. What had upset him? Did my story trigger an unpleasant memory? Or did I hit him where it hurt emotionally. It should take more than the simple inability to “draw hands” to stop someone from enjoying their passion. Oh well. I wish him luck with what ever life choices he’s settled for.

Like this:

As mentioned during my time at Heroes Con, artist Don Rosa recalled his encounter with a group of children who struggled to understand the concept of Charlie Brown purchasing a comic from a newsstand. Said scenario was not too foreign for my age group, as the closest my generation has come to that experience was buying a comic from a grocery store or the 7-Eleven. Of course, those were not my only options for most of my life, but I recently began to realize how much of these experiences would join newsstands of Mr Rosa’s anecdote in generational dissonance.

The late 1980s was the time that direct-to-sell comic book stores began to spread nationwide, giving access to independent comic publishers. At the time, I was only 8 years old and pretty much removed from current events of the world, but even back then, I knew the idea was pretty novel. Previously, I had only seen comics at the 7-eleven or the grocery store and by that point it was those places with which I associated comics. As soon as I saw an ad for the comic book store on TV, I just had to get my mother to take me there.

Geppi’s Comic Book Store was the place in my area. It had a name that caught a child’s ear, and just the mere concept was a dream come true: a store withnothing but comics. Thathad to be the best thing to happen to a kid since…….anall cartoon channel!

Hey, this was five years away.

I remember as I entered the store it was wall to wall of shelves with nothing but colorfully illustrated works. Of course, There were so many titles I had never seen, so I wandered around to find whatever struck familiar. Were there adults in the store rummaging through the merchandise? I don’t remember. They weren’t my focus. All II remembered was that the first thing to catch my eye were the back issues of Disney Adventures Magazine.

Yes kids, the “Nice Judge” from American Idol was once “Totally Cool”.

I first saw advertisements for this magazine on The Disney Channel (back when it was a pay channel), but didn’t obtain access until I spotted copies sitting next to the TV Guides at the grocery rack. By that point I had only received the third issue so far in the publication (the Bronson Pinchot issue pictured above), so my disappointment in missing the first three issues unthawed.

To be honest, I’m surprised DA survived into the Hanna Montana Era.

Somewhere off to the side, I spotted a a comic book adaptation of a sitcom airing at the time— Married with Children, published by NOW comics. I asked my mother to buy one for me. She was bit hesitant to do so, having seen the show, but added it to the pile of more-kid friendly fare already gathered in my arms.

If there were any dirty jokes, they went over my head.

Although I would make subsequent visits to new comic shops, the grocery store and 7-Eleven still remained primary sources for titles. My interest in Disney Adventures eventually dropped by early high school, only keeping my subscription when the magazine began running Jeff Smith’s Bone series before ending it to purchase the series separately in a new store. Had I not gone in search for Bone, though, I never would have been able to reconnect with Frank Cho’s series Liberty Meadows after it syndication in The Washington Post for Image Comics. I owe a lot to the Comic book store.

I never thought I would look back on that time the same way the generations before me look back on their visits to the newsstands. Today, every major city has at least two comic book stores. There are two within a 5 mile radius of where I live. I would go to one first before anywhere else for a comic. I don’t see a lot of true comics in the grocery store’s magazine section anymore. Most 7-Elevens I’ve been to recently don’t have an arcade cabinet let alone a comic rack.

Of course, I still attend my current local comic store, which now hosts the annual Free Comic Book Day. Whenever I wait in line for those complementary comic samples, I cant help but notice children who attend with their parents. I could imagine half of them look at their selected titles and wonder why some of the characters buying a comic from the convenience store.

My Grandmother is 93 years old (b. 1920), meaning that she was 18 when Action Comics #1 debuted on newsstands : She represents a hidden transition: the last of a generation that remember a time before superheroes or comics in book form, like those who remember life before television, computers, or sliced bread. Once her generation is gone, so do the perspectives that inadvertently remind us of how deeply comics have become integrated in our culture since their time.

If I’m not mistaken, Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee is only two years younger than my Grandma (born 1922). He was about my grandmother’s age when he received his first job in the comic book industry. We have Mr. Lee’s memory on the world before Superman for historical purposes, but what about the average person? The ones who bought Mr. Lee’s work, or those who dismissed it as “kid’s stuff”? Sadly, by the time I realized this my grandmother was already in the depths of dementia. Not all is lost, since I do recall how she used to respond to my own comics and I can always ask my mother how she used to react to my uncle’s collection.

People have Interviewed World War II veterans and (in the 1930s) former slaves for archives, but what about the first generation of comic book readers and the people they interacted with? They are grandparents, friends, neighbors, co-workers, someone we know in one way or another. Whom in their “funny magazines” did they consider their “superman” before there was one?